Winter Is Coming: An RPG Blog Festival

The human mortals want their winter here;No night is now with hymn or carol blest:Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,Pale in her anger, washes all the air,That rheumatic diseases do abound:And thorough this distemperature we seeThe seasons alter: hoary-headed frostsFar in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,And on old Hiems' thin and icy crownAn odorous chaplet of sweet summer budsIs, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,The childing autumn, angry winter, changeTheir wonted liveries, and the mazed world,By their increase, now knows not which is which... - Titania, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II Scene 1

Welcome to the Winter Is Coming RPG Blog Festival. We're a group of bloggers and gamers inspired to produce and publish winter-themed RPG content for a week, either as guest bloggers here on Wombat's Gaming Den of Iniquity or on another site which we'll link to from this page. The point? To rally the RPG community around a topic; to share, to read and to comment on the ideas that your fellow gamers have developed when inspired by Winter. Everyone involved welcomes your attention and your feedback. Enjoy!

Friday 23 September 2011Winter Elves by Adam Page was the original article that kicked off the idea of the Winter Is Coming festival. Without this article none of this would have happened, so please enjoy this new elf race for D&D 4E.

Our Town Is Dying by Brent Newhall of The New Haul presents a Heroic Tier D&D 4E adventure in more of a narrative style. Please comment and let him know what you think of the fiction-as-adventure approach.Saturday 24 September 2011The Nerathi Winterlands by Adam Page takes us on a tour of the beauty and hardships commonly found in the cold mountainous region north of the Nentir Vale.

Iron Keep of the Barrow King is a system-independent adventure written by Kevin Reid-Rice which takes us on a dark journey into the frozen citadel of a vengeful undead dwarven smith. Save the children and recover priceless treasures before it all comes crashing down!
Sunday 25 September 2011Winter Festivals by Adam Page brings us back to the Nentir Vale and points north for a description of some winter traditions and celebrations, not all of them joyful.

Terrain Powers by Matthew Brenner of Blood, Sweat, and Dice provides three powers for your D&D 4E heroes to use when fighting in wintry terrain. And yes, he wrote up 4E snowball stats for the win.
Tuesday 27 September 2011Nights Watchman Theme by Adam Page is the first post directly inspired by George R. R. Martin's works that lets you build guards for your Wall in D&D 4E. I'm surprised it took this long, given the name of the festival.

The Fenoriad Campaign Wiki by Tim Emrick lets us browse the wiki he created for his arctic campaign under the BESM 2E rules. You can find all sorts of ideas to adapt for any winter-themed game in here.

The Endless Winter - David Flor of Walk in the Dark produced a huge detailed adventure for 4 to 6 12th level D&D 4E heroes. It's a 43 page PDF complete with maps, and the adventure was designed to get the heroes to level 13. I'm in awe of the amount of work that went into The Endless Winter, so grab your copy now.Thursday 29 September 2011Storm Caller Theme - Adam Page wrote up this weather-controlling theme for D&D 4E arcane classes. If you've ever wanted to call down a storm to punish your enemies in Heroic tier, now you can.

A Winter Chase by IronWolf of The Iron Tavern uses the Pathfinder rules for chases to design obstacles for a chase through a snow-covered city. These are solid ideas for urban hazards that translate easily to other systems.

The Plane Of Ice by Jeremy Morgan of Stormin' Da Castle gives us a tour of the Paraelemental Plane of Ice in D&D 4E. A great update of the 2E inner plane, it contains the 4 best words that express an idea I love: Gems Of Frozen Thoughts.

Druid of Winter - Matt Maranda of Monsters, Mazes, and Magic starts rounding out the D&D 4E "seasonal" druids with his Druid of Winter. With a raven companion to penalize enemy saves, this durable druid causes slow, fire and cold vulnerability, and eventually an immediate reaction attack that knocks enemies prone.

Rock Fall Illustration by Symatt of A Gentleman's Thoughts shows us how much a high strength and high cold resistance boosts survival in a colder climate. Good rolls can't hurt when you're catching rocks.Friday 30 September 2011Winter's Wrath - Grim Tree Games of the Grim Tree Games Blog created this adventure for D&D 4E, though it's easily adapted to other systems. It has a Lovecraftian feel, where someone steals a powerful artifact and tinkers with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know for their own gain.

The Snow Queen - Jeff Dougan of A Man's Brain-Attic sings us out on an Epic note as he shows us his high Epic Tier D&D 4E version of Hans Christian Anderson's Snow Queen and the Magic Mirror from the Princess series of books by Jim C. Hines. Go download the PDF and put the screws to your heroes. Enjoy!
Saturday 01 October 2011Claus Acolyte - Kevin Campbell of the Organ House created a new base class for D&D 4E, inspired by the Dark Future of Warhammer 40K. All the powers for every level are available on the downloadable PDF. NOTE: This should have been published on Wednesday, but I misfiled the email. My bad!Monday 03 October 2011Winter's Reach Campaign Outline - Obsidian Crane of Daily Encounter wrote up his D&D 4E campaign through all of Heroic tier, from humble beginnings in Truevaile to the climactic final battle against the sorcerer Jargesh. He also includes notes for extending the campaign into Paragon and Epic tiers.Tuesday 11 October 2011The Night's Watch - Daniel M. Perez of Dragon Age Oracle gives us a version of Night's Watch Rangers for Dragon Age, based on the writeup of the Grey Warden in Set 2.Wednesday 12 October 2011Rime Golem - Jerry LeNeave of the The Dread Gazebo gives us a fourthcore-ready deadly D&D 4E Heroic Tier construct made of ice, an ideal companion for any Cryomancer. Wish him luck in dealing with the script kiddies who hacked his blog over the past couple of weeks.

Wombat Whozit?

Better known as T.W.Wombat. Editor of Role Playing Games. Vanquisher of befuddlement. Working gamer. Dime-store philosopher. Childish father. Impromptu planner. Paradigm adjuster. System combiner. Intolerant of intolerance. Will GM for food.